Yesterday, Florida Senator Bill Nelson stated that he is proposing that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigate the circumstances surrounding Royal Caribbean’s decision to cruise the Anthem of the Seas into a storm with over 4,500 passengers aboard. The Senator expressed frustration with the fact that the Royal Caribbean cruise ship sailed into a storm with expected 30 foot seas and hurricane force winds.
The captain of the cruise ship spoke to the passengers on the ship yesterday via video, telling them that the forecasts of the storm indicated that there would be winds of only around 12 to 15 feet which is clearly contradicted by several forecasts indicating that the waves would be twice that in height.
The Today Show’s weatherman Al Roker summed it up accurately saying that the cruise line’s claim that it was surprised by the storm was "bull feathers." (video)
Some may question the wisdom of having the master of the cruise ship providing false information to the cruise line’s guests after he terrorized them by recklessly sailing into the storm, but this is a cruise line which has a Pinocchio-like tendency of lying to the public when the truth would serve it better. When a TV weatherman makes you the butt of a joke on a popular morning television program, you may want to re-think your PR strategy.
Just last July, Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas caught fire as it sailed into Falmouth, Jamaica. What makes the fire so memorable is that the cruise line went out of its way to downplay the event, calling the major event – which burned from the bottom to the top of the ship – just a contained and quickly extinguished "’small fire." It repeated over and over the cruise line’s talking point that the safety of its passengers is always its highest priority. The "small fire" hoax, as I called it, and the cruise line’s habitual practice of placing profits over safety, were revealed by video of the large ship fire posted on social media and the cruise line’s decision to flaunt IMO recommendations and keep sailing without anyone conducting a survey of the heavily damaged ship.
The Anthem of the Seas debacle places the cruise industry back before before a cruising public which is increasingly weary of dealing with the high seas drama of rough weather, cruise ship fires, and cruise mishaps – ranging from poop cruise inconveniences to Costa Concordia-scale disasters, when families are just trying to enjoy a vacation at sea with their kids. Providing false and misleading information to these families after the fact just makes things worse. It tarnishes the credibility of the entire cruise industry before the public.
Newspapers are again posting videos of cruise ship disasters from the past. like the one below from USA TODAY. The question of "who is policing the cruise ship industry" is again being asked in public forums. No one, we believe.
The bottom line is do you trust the cruise lines when they claim that your family’s safety and security is their top priority? If this were the case, then cruise ships would not be sailing to the majority of the ports in the Caribbean which are mostly far more dangerous than the U.S.’s most dangerous inner cities.
Some people may scoff at the notion that a cruise lines would possibly risk a new billion dollar cruise ship filled with many thousands of passengers and crew by sailing into a storm forecast with extreme winds and sea conditions. But cruise ships don’t make money if they are not operating. When cruising requires prudence and caution, whether it be dealing with proper maintenance of cruise ship engines or respect for mother nature, cruise lines seem prone to exhibit a macho "we can’t sink" mentality that invokes historical references to the Titanic.
Photo/video credit: Sean Ferguson YouTube